For many days, the golden deer remained in Benares with the king and queen. The city was decorated, and festivities were held in honor of the animal. Then he returned to the woodland grove where he had dwelt for so long. There he spent the rest of his days in peace. (Applause)

It's a good story. If we human beings can imitate even a small part of the noble qualities of this golden deer, then our world will become paradise. But sadly, many of us always try to grasp everything for ourselves, in every circumstance. Even in spiritual practice, we still cannot stop being greedy and selfish, trying to snatch spiritual blessing at the expense of others. This is even graver than trying to snatch property or possessions from other beings in the mundane world, because we are already on the spiritual path. So whatever we take, we must earn ourselves. We can ask for blessings, guidance and help whenever we need it. This is OK when the need arises or when it's necessary, but never at the cost of other people's happiness and convenience. Try to remember this.

In every situation in life, we must always be considerate and fair-minded. It's not that I ask you to always sacrifice yourselves, even if it's for other people's happiness or gain. But at least play fair. Because if we as practitioners cannot play fair, how can we expect the world outside to be fair to us or to be a fairer place for everyone to live in? So if it is not fair here, I cannot believe that you will be fair outside to other people. And I cannot accept this kind of disciple, especially after you have been studying a long time with me already. Even if you are a newcomer, I still don't have an excuse for you. Because you have available to you videotapes, audio cassettes, books and everything. You cannot tell me that you are new so you don't know anything. Your soul knows what is right and what is wrong. That's why you came.

If you want to turn yourself into a fox, that's your problem, but not at the expense of the assembly. You don't come here to steal the blessings of the whole group. You don't come here to compete with each other for the best seat in the theater, like outside people. Even outside people, if they want the best seat in the theater, they pay for it! They are fairer out there. So you pay for the best seat with your spiritual practice and with your earning efforts. Don't try to steal anything here, because I know. I know what belongs to whom. If you try to steal here, you might just as well throw the Five Precepts away and not bother to come any more. Because this is the place where you should be the most exemplary of your spiritual status. If you can't show me here, where else will you show it?

We should never forget our dignity and our noble purpose everywhere, for whatever price. If we practice well, if we love the Master and love God, God knows. The Master knows, for sure. You can see from the deer story that even the deer is better than many human beings. So we should learn from all these golden animals. We don't care whether they were Buddha's previous reincarnations or not; their actions bespeak their inner spiritual achievement. So don't be too proud that we are human beings, if we are not up to it.

Actually, I don't know why we should be proud that we are human beings. For example, I read in the newspaper, I hear on the radio, and I see on TV about so many noble animals that rescue people. They rescue their own kids, even at the expense of their own lives. There was one picture of a cat. She was totally burned, blind and scarred all over because she came back four times into the fire of a burning house to rescue four of her kittens. She was burned and blind and beyond recognition. But she brought them all out to safety, this cat.

A cat is very independent. After she is pregnant, I think she doesn't get help from any male or father cat. She raises her children alone. And I have seen many cats in our surroundings sometimes who do all these beautiful things for their children. I saw one bringing beautiful food - I'm sorry, this is not a very beautiful thing to say - but I saw her bring the best food, like a mouse or some other big food for her children. And she just caught flies, insects or any small thing to eat for herself. I don't approve of a non-vegetarian diet, but I cannot reason with a cat. And I am touched by her devotion. Because a cat can only eat this, and she did her best to provide nourishment for her children while eating garbage for herself. I saw it with my own eyes. I would not scold her for eating non-vegetarian food or killing mice. I am only very moved by her love.

This picture is still vivid in my mind every time I think about cats. So I don't know why we human beings treat animals so cruelly, most of us, and think of them as low-level beings. I think many animals are very noble. They are so noble and so loving to their own kind, as well as to others. And sometimes you see a cat or a dog swimming in a very dangerous river to rescue his friends. Be it a human friend or a dog friend, or a cat's friend, they do that - at the risk of their own lives. But not many of us human beings dare to do this. When we see a situation that's dangerous, we don't risk our life. But when animals see danger, they still risk their lives, out of love.

So if we human beings cannot return to this natural instinct of basic compassion and love, which the animals still possess, then we should feel more sorry for ourselves than proud of ourselves. And that is the reason we must be vegetarian, because the animals are truly noble. They truly possess the human quality and a soul within them, just like we do. So I think it's also good when we learn from the animals. It's not that we learn to become an animal, but their good qualities we should remember so that we don't feel ashamed of being lower than animal standards.

We should rise to the noble position of a saint. To do that, we must possess compassion and love and understanding and unselfish sacrifice at all times, be it in retreat, at home, in a supermarket or anywhere else, even in the forest where no one else can see us and no one else is there to record our good deeds or to praise our noble efforts. We must always be noble alone, because we alone know what we are. And God knows.

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